"May He give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed."

Monday, December 31, 2012

Happy New Year 2013!!

I had great aspirations to post our Christmas letter before
the Mayan Apocalypse, but obviously that didn’t happen. This year has been full of surprises.

Despite our protests, our youngest daughter Kelsey crossed
over to the dark side – as you can see from our Christmas picture, she chose to
attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after graduating from
NRCA with honors this year. She has really enjoyed her first semester and is
especially thankful for a great roommate.

Meanwhile, Megan is making plans to graduate from NC State
University this coming May. She is finishing up her Bachelor of Arts in
International Studies – European Concentration and minors in Spanish and Arts
Entrepreneurship. She has applied for a Fulbright Scholarship to continue her
studies by completing independent research in Prague on how the arts can be
used to facilitate inclusion among the Romani population. If the Fulbright
doesn’t work out, she has several backup plans – all with the intent of
returning to Prague.

Daniel is enjoying his last year in middle school. He is
really broadening his musical repertoire – he’s currently first chair trombone,
plays drums and jimbe in the Student praise band at church, and is teaching
himself how to play a variety of songs on his electric guitar. He was thrilled
to get an acoustic electric guitar for Christmas and is hoping to lead worship
not only at church, but at chapel at NRCA as well.

Matt is in fifth grade – finishing elementary school. It’s
hard to imagine that half of our children have now graduated from high school
and we will soon have no one in elementary school. Where have the years gone?
Matt was excited to sing in the Christmas musical at church and has really
enjoyed starting band this year. He is playing the trumpet and picking it up
quite well.

Randy continues to teach Pre-Algebra at NRCA and serve as Worship
Pastor at Wakefield Baptist. This past year included leading his first
international mission trip as he took a team that included Kelsey to Bolivia.
It was not only a great time for the two of them, but a productive visit as
well. They were able to spend quite a bit of time with students at the local
university and built relationships that are continuing to grow through the
modern technology of social media. Over 300 people attended their showings of
the Jesus Film and as many as 90 became followers of Christ.

Felicia got a wonderful Christmas surprise in the form of a
job offer! Starting January 7, she will be managing Compensation and Classification
for the Division of Public Health. She is very excited about this opportunity
and eager to see what God has in store. She and her friend Daphne were able to
return to the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference in May for the
second time. Felicia was humbled and delighted to receive Second Place in the
Young Adult Category for her first, as yet unpublished, novel, CzechMate.
She is (slowly) working on edits and hopes to submit it for publication in the
coming months. In the meantime, her contacts from the conference resulted in her
second published story. You can pre-order a copy online now of God’s
Provision in Tough Times at http://www.amazon.com/Provision-Cynthia-Howerter-La-Tan-Murphy/dp/1938499441/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357013903&sr=8-1&keywords=god%27s+provision+in+tough+times
which features an encouraging true
story of how God worked in our lives through difficult circumstances.

This past year was filled with several unhappy surprises as
well. In March, Felicia’s father underwent back surgery and experienced severe
complications. At one point, the doctors did not expect him to make it through
the night, but we are very thankful that our prayers were answered and he is doing much better. We had
planned a large 50th Anniversary celebration for him and her mom,
which we ended up having to postpone until he was feeling better in October.
Just a couple of weeks before the re-scheduled party, he had two more mishaps
which included totaling their new car and getting a helicopter ride to Pitt Memorial. We told him we were going through with the
party with or without him so he might as well get better and enjoy it, and that
seemed to perk him up a bit.

In December, we
suffered a terrible shock when Felicia’s older brother, Hal, had a stroke. Hal
is the absolute picture of health, and we are very hopeful that he will recover
the use of his left arm and leg, but it was a powerful reminder that we are not
guaranteed tomorrow. Whether it is the Mayan Apocalypse, an alien invasion, or
simply our own mortality – this life will end for each of us and most likely
sooner than we think. As you celebrate the Christmas season and look forward to
the New Year, do you know the One we celebrate?
Our prayer is that you know the peace of God through a relationship with His Son this
season.